Friday, March 04, 2011

Blueberry and Lemon Friands

Ever heard of friands? These are the Australian "cousin" of the famous French financiers, the little moist egg-white cakes. Both are excellent for using up all those egg whites in the kitchen if you're tired of making Pavlovas and meringues! There are some differences, however. Whereas the financiers tend to use browned butter and are plain, the friands are made with melted butter and usually with the addition of fruit or berries. Another difference is the shape - the financiers are (traditionally) baked in oblong rectangular forms (to look like gold bars, apparently), the friands are usually baked in small oval tins (though you can use regular muffin tins or even tiny fluted tins like this talented Estonian food photographer did). Dorie Greenspan has written more about those two pastries.

I've adapted a recipe from BBC Good Food magazine. Note that I used ground whole almonds - hence the slightly darker colour of the cakes. The texture has more, well, bite to it as well, but you can obviously also use ground blanched almonds.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Generously butter eight non-stick friand or muffin tins.
Sift the icing sugar and flour into a bowl, add the almonds and mix.
Whisk the egg whites in another bowl until they form a light, floppy foam.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, pour in the egg whites and lemon rind, then lightly stir in the butter to form a soft batter.
Divide the batter among the tins. Sprinkle some berries over each cake.
Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 200 C oven for about 20 minutes, until just firm to the touch and golden brown on top.
Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack. To serve, dust lightly with icing sugar.